A Little Bit of Good News for Chanukah

I just came across this article in Ynetnews.com about a recent study showing that Israeli society is becoming less secular and more traditional.

I can’t vouch for the veracity of the statistics, of course, but I can add a few personal anecdotes from my years living in Israel.

We lived with my brother in Maaleh Adumim during the first few weeks after making aliyah, until our apartment at the absorption center was ready. I needed to go to the mikvah (ritual bath) one evening, and I went early – so early that the place was closed and I needed to wait for the mikvah attendant to show up. As I was waiting a few women showed up, dressed in shorts and sleeveless tops. At first I thought that I had the wrong address. In America only Orthodox women used the mikva, so I was not used to seeing women who didn’t dress the way I did. I then learned that many outwardly appearing secular women kept the laws of taharat hamishpacha (“family purity”), and were in essence traditional and not secular.

Our ulpan teacher related a story about her son. He served in the army with hesdernikim (those that combine army service with yeshiva learning), and one time the hesdernikim would not eat the food on Shabbat because it was prepared by a Jew on the Sabbath itself. They basically fasted the whole day. He was so impressed with their keeping this halacha (religious law), that he decided to observe one himself. He decided to wait to eat dairy foods after eating meat (there are many different traditions here, but most wait either three or 5-6 hours). My ulpan teacher was absolutely shocked. She claimed that she came from a long line of secular Jews, who did not follow any of the laws or traditions, and she joked that her son would now be the “black sheep in the family”.

It seems that the younger generation does not feel the need to hold on to their secularism religiously (pun intended).

I personally find this encouraging. I don’t expect Israeli society to become observant, but I think it will be a positive thing for more people to have respect for both halacha and traditions. It can only help to mend the rifts in our society.